The Short Title of this Act is “The Civil Service Beform Act, 1886.”

Section twelve of “The Civil Service Act, 1866” (herein referred to as “the said Act”), so far as the said section would relate to any persons hereafter to be appointed to the Civil Service, and all other provisions of the said Act or of any Act passed in amendment thereof which may be repugnant to the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, and the said Act with its amending Acts shall be read and construed subject to the provisions of this Act.

This Act shall apply to females as well as to males, and words herein importing the masculine gender shall be construed to include females.

Every person who, after the passing of this Act, shall be appointed to the Civil Service of the colony, shall only enter such service as a cadet after competitive examination as provided in section nine, and after he or she has been proved to be physically fit for the service.

The Controller and Auditor-General shall not pass any voucher for the payment of salary to any person to be appointed as aforesaid who is not appointed in manner as by this section and by section nine provided.

Nothing in this section contained, however, shall apply to any person skilled in medicine, law, navigation, science, technical art, or the management of live stock, or in naval or military matters; nor to persons who are now employed as extra clerks in the public service, nor to persons appointed under “The Defence Act, 1886,” or “The Police Force Act, 1886,” nor to officers of prisons, nor to persons appointed as messengers.

No person shall be appointed permanently as a messenger unless he has passed an examination equivalent to that of the Fourth Standard of education provided under “The Education Act, 1877,” or any Act passed in amendment thereof:

Provided that in the case of persons who have been formerly employed in the service of the colony, or of Her Majesty elsewhere, or who have been injured or disabled in the colony, such an examination need not be insisted on.

No person shall be appointed permanently under “The Defence Act, 1886,” or “The Police Force Act, 1886,” or as an officer of the prisons unless he has passed an examination equivalent to that of the Fourth Standard of education.

The names of all skilled persons appointed under the proviso in section four shall be laid before both Houses of the Greneral Assembly within ten days after their appointment if Parliament shall then be sitting, and, if during the recess, within ten days after the commencement of the next session.

No cadet, hereafter appointed, shall receive more than one hundred pounds per annum until he has passed the Senior Civil Service Examination.

All appointments to the Civil Service shall be by competitive examination, which shall be held periodically in the chief centres of population, and from the most successful competitors in the order of their merit shall be selected candidates to fill all vacant cadetships in the Civil Service.

The competitive examination aforesaid shall include such subjects as the Governor in Council shall from time to time appoint, and when any two or more candidates stand in equal order of merit, and there are not sufficient vacancies for all of them to receive appointments, the selection of such candidates to be appointed shall be determined by lot, to be conducted under the direction of the Colonial Secretary.

Out of the salary of every Civil servant hereafter appointed there shall be deducted the sum of five per centum per annum, which said sum, with all interest which may accrue thereon, shall be paid into a separate fand to the Public Trustee to be invested at interest on such security as the Public Trust Office shall approve. It may invest the same along with other sums, but a separate account shall be kept for the amount paid to the credit of each such officer, and no sums to the credit of any Civil servant shall be attached for debt or be deemed an asset in the event of his bankruptcy.

On retirement from the service, from whatever cause except the commission of a crime, there shall be paid to the Civil servant the amount to his credit in the Public Trust Office, or in case of his or her death the amount shall be paid in maimer as may be directed by his or her will, and, in the absence of such will, then according to the law for the time being in force regulating the distribution of the estates of persons dying intestate:

Provided that in case of retirement from the service on account of the commission of a crime the amount to his or her credit may, after paying any defalcations he or she may have made, be paid to his wife or her husband, as the case may be, and in the event of there being no wife or husband, then to any children of him or her:

Provided further that the said sums to the credit of the Civil servants may be supplemented from time to time by the appropriation of the General Assembly, and such sums so supplemented shall be appropriated as determined by the Appropriation Act or by rules approved of by the Governor in Council.

Every Civil servant hereafter appointed shall be deemed a three-monthly servant, and removable at any time after three months’ notice.

No Civil servant shall hereafter on his retirement, or immediately preceding his retirement, receive more than three months’ leave of absence.

The Governor, by Order in Council, from time to time, may except from the operation of this Act, or particular provisions thereof only, the whole or any branch or section of the Postal and Telegraph Departments of the Civil Service respectively; and may make special regulations for the classification and promotion of the officers therein.

Any such Order in Council may from time to time be amended or revoked in part or in whole.

Nothing herein appearing shall apply to the working railway staff appointed, or to be appointed, under regulations made in pursuance of the Public Works Acts.